The present invention relates to a manual parking brake operating device for a vehicle.
As a general parking brake operating device for a vehicle, a manual operating device Z0 as shown in FIG. 17 is conventionally known. The device Z0 comprises a bracket 101 secured to a vehicle body and a lever 102 pivoted on the bracket 101 for rotational movement in a vertical direction by a pivot pin 111. The bracket 101 has pawl teeth 109 arranged along an arc about the pivot pin 111.
The lever 102 has a base end part to which an arcuate cable guide 112 about which a brake wire 113 is trained is secured. When the lever 102 is lifted from a non-operative position shown by solid lines to an operative position shown by broken lines in FIG. 17, the brake wire 113 is pulled and a required operating force is applied to a brake (not shown) via the brake wire 113. A pawl member 107 is swingably supported on the lever 102 by a pin 106. A latch pawl 108 of the pawl member 107 is selectively locked with one of the pawl teeth 109 of the bracket 101, whereby an operating force corresponding to a rotational position of the lever 102 is maintained.
The lever 102 has a hollow part 110 therein and a push rod 104 for releasing the locking engagement of the latch pawl 108 with the pawl tooth 109 is provided in the hallow part 110. At the time of the releasing operation, a push button 105 projected from an end of the lever 102 is pressed with the lever 102 slightly lifted (namely, in a state where a meshing force generated between the pawl teeth 109 and the latch pawl 108 by a tensile force of the brake wire 113 is released to allow the push rod 104 to be pressed) to apply a rotational force in a direction to release the locking engagement to the pawl member 107 via the push rod 104, thereby releasing the locking engagement of the latch pawl 108 with the pawl teeth 109.
When a braking force is thought to be insufficient (namely, when the brake is thought to be working insufficiently) after lifting operation of the lever 102 has been conducted to set the braking force, a desired braking force can be obtained by further lifting the lever 102. In FIG. 12, reference numeral 103 indicates a grip provided around the lever 102.
The manual parking brake operating device Z0 as above has the following problems:
(1) Since the brake operating device Z0 is so constituted that the brake is released by pressing the push button 105, there is a possibility that the push button 105 is pressed by mistake during parking with the lever 102 lifted to exert a prescribed braking force and the braking force is unexpectedly released against the driver""s will.
(2) In order to arrange the push rod 104 in an end part of the lever 102, at least a part of the lever 102 near the end must be formed into a cylindrical shape. As a result, the workability of the lever 2 is poor, causing increase in cost. Additionally, the shape of the lever 102 imposes a limitation on design of the grip 103 provided over the end part of the lever 2, so that the freedom in the design of the grip 103 is hindered.
(3) Since the push rod 104 is disposed in the lever 102, the lever 102 must be formed into as linear a shape as possible from the base end part to the end part in order to ensure a proper action of the push rod 104, so that the degree of freedom in layout of the operating device Z0 on a vehicle is unavoidably low.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional manual operating device for a vehicle parking brake.
According to the present invention, there is provided a brake operating device for a vehicle having a vehicle body provided with a brake, comprising:
a mounting bracket secured to said vehicle body;
a lever pivoted to said bracket so as to be rotated between first and second positions manually and operatively connected to said brake so that a braking force corresponding to an amount of rotation from said first position toward said second position is exerted on said brake;
a pawl teeth member having pawl teeth and secured to one of said bracket and said lever;
a latch pawl member supported on the other of said bracket and said lever and having a latch pawl engageable with said pawl teeth of said pawl teeth member,
said latch pawl member being movable between a locked position in which said latch pawl is in locking engagement with said pawl teeth and an unlocked position in which said locking engagement of said latch pawl with said pawl teeth is released,
said latch pawl member assuming said locked position, when said lever is rotated from said first position toward said second position, to maintain said lever in a rotational position and assuming said unlocked position, when said lever is further rotated from said rotational position toward said second position by a prescribed amount, to release said locking engagement of said latch pawl with said pawl teeth so that said lever may be allowed to rotate in either direction; and
a position changing member supported on the other of said bracket and said lever by a single pin and adapted for shifting said latch pawl member from said unlocked position to said locked position when said lever is further rotated from said rotational position toward said second position beyond said prescribed amount.